Politics

House Dems Bemoan GOP Effort To Block Military Funding For Child Sex Changes

Image/Jessica Rodriguez Rivas

House Democrats are attacking the GOP’s move to stop the military from paying for child sex change treatments in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

House Republicans negotiating the most recent iteration of the NDAA managed to include language that expressly prohibits the military from paying for “medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization” for children under the age of 18. Democratic Washington Rep. Adam Smith, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, slammed the provision as one intended to appease “the most extreme elements” of the Republican Party.

“House Armed Services Democrats were successful in blocking many harmful provisions that attacked DEI programs, the LGBTQ community, and women’s access to reproductive health care. It also included provisions that required bipartisan compromise. And had it remained as such, it would easily pass both chambers in a bipartisan vote,” Smith said in a statement. “However, the final text includes a provision prohibiting medical treatment for military dependents under the age of 18 who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria … This provision injected a level of partisanship not traditionally seen in defense bills. Speaker Johnson is pandering to the most extreme elements of his party to ensure that he retains his speakership.”

Biden DOJ Unseals Indictment Against Doctor Who Blew Whistle On Child Sex Changes https://t.co/sU0P4APolJ

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 17, 2024

“I urge the Speaker to abandon this current effort and let the House bring forward a bill — reflective of the traditional bipartisan process — that supports our troops and their families, invests in innovation and modernization, and doesn’t attack the transgender community,” Smith concluded.

Lawmakers released the draft text of the NDAA for fiscal year 2025 on Saturday, and the House intends to vote on it on Thursday, according to Breaking Defense.

While proponents of sex change treatments for minors argue that cross sex hormone therapy and various other procedures are effective treatments to counter gender dysphoria, opponents have argued that there is no durable scientific basis for that claim and that medical professionals are effectively mutilating minors for life with medical treatments like puberty blockers. Notably, a four-year review of  transgender medical studies published in April found that there is “weak evidence” supporting the use of puberty blockers by transgender-identifying children.

Moreover, Dr. Susan Bradley — a Canadian psychiatrist and pioneer in child gender dysphoria treatment — told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a 2023 interview that puberty blockers are “not as reversible as we always thought, and they have longer term effects on kids’ growth and development, including making them sterile and quite a number of things affecting their bone growth,” adding that she and her team were “wrong” to have suggested otherwise.

President-elect Donald Trump and his pick to run the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, have pledged to cut “wokeness” out of the military and return its exclusive focus to fighting and winning wars upon taking office next month. For their part, Democrats have argued that diversity and equity in the military make it a more effective fighting force.